Tag Archives: NOAA

The country’s tsunami warning system is in ‘urgent need’ of an upgrade, according to expert panel

The country’s tsunami warning system is in “urgent need” of an overhaul. That’s according to a report compiled by a panel of seven tsunami experts and presented to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Scientific Advisory Board in January. The U.S. currently has two tsunami warning centers, which operate independently of one another: one in Honolulu, Hawaii and the other …

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Endangered Cook Inlet belugas continue to decline, scientists aren’t sure why

Cook Inlet beluga whales are continuing to decline in number, according to a NOAA abundance estimate released last month. From Alaska’s Energy Desk, Kavitha George has the story of how the decline in belugas is both controversial and largely unexplained. Cook Inlet beluga. (Photo by Paul Wade/NOAA) The decline of the white whales in the inlet in view of Anchorage …

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New UAF climate report highlights rapidly changing Alaska ecosystems

Alaska has been breaking so many climate records over the last five years, it suggests we’ve crossed a threshold into increasingly rapid ecosystem changes. That’s according to a new report by Rick Thoman and John Walsh, scientists at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “When you cross these thresholds, some of which we don’t know …

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Pink salmon disaster relief funding expecting July 1 NOAA approval

More than two years after the 2016 pink salmon season was officially declared a disaster, things might finally be looking up for gulf fishers expecting relief payments. For months, the disaster relief plan has bounced around in federal and state bureaucracy, without a clear timeline for when it would be officially approved. And as the 2019 season ramps up, many …

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Three dead gray whales wash up on Kodiak Island beaches in one week

Whale carcass. (Photo Courtesy of Kathy Burek, Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services as authorized by NOAA’s Marine Mammal Stranding Program.) Daysha Eaton/KMXT Three dead gray whales washed up on two different Kodiak Island beaches recently. The strandings happened within the span of a week, said Mandy Migura, Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The …

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NOAA law enforcement researches sexual harassment, assault among fishery observers

(Photo Courtesy of NOAA) Daysha Eaton/KMXT Women are harassed and fear for their safety much more than men when they work as fishery observers. That’s according to a report that NOAA’s office of law enforcement officials presented about sexual harassment of observers to a meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Kodiak this past week. The report shared …

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Sun’aq Tribe prepares to respond to whale strandings

Breaching humpback whale. (Photo by Antarctica Bound/Flickr) Mitch Borden/KMXT The Sun’aq tribe is working on partnering with the Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network so some of its staff can respond to alive and dead whales that wash ashore in the Kodiak Archipelago. Kelly Krueger, a biologist for the Sun’aq Tribe, was one of the people who came face-to-face with one …

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Man and Robot Companions Retrieve Equipment Lost at Sea

An example of one type of ROV. NOAA-owned model, Deep Discoverer, gets a closer look at a ferromanganese-encrusted outcrop on an unnamed seamount in the eastern region of the Samoan Exclusive Economic Zone. (Photo by NOAA Ocean Explorer / Flickr) Kayla Desroches/KMXT Sometimes companies or agencies lose their equipment at sea. And rather than leave an expensive investment behind on …

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Science Symposium Brings With It Talk on Warming Oceans

Kayla Desroches/KMXT Warming ocean conditions may be killing off seabirds and affecting fish populations, and it’s unlikely to change without intervention. That’s part of what University of Alaska Fairbanks Professor Russ Hopcroft will talk about for his lecture at the upcoming Kodiak Area Marine Science Symposium. Hopcroft and his project partners study the northern Gulf of Alaska. He says in …

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